SMB VoIP Adoption Still Sluggish

IT Business Edge blogger Carl Weinschenk and I have both written about the continuing difficulties in getting SMBs to adopt Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions. There's the fact that legacy phone systems aren't exactly broken, to the inherent complexity of VoIP, to a relative dearth of vendors targeting the SMB market.

So, how are they doing? Not so hot, according to a recent CompTIA report. According to a TMCnet.com item about the report, three-quarters of U.S. and Canadian SMBs (20 to 499 employees) have separate voice and data networks. However, 61 percent of U.S. SMBs and 39 percent of Canadian SMBs intend to invest in VoIP solutions within three years.

Reinforcing the need for vendors to offer simple VoIP solutions, just 41 percent of U.S. SMBs and 38 percent of Canadian SMBs manage and support their voice and data networks internally. Many of them employ a single dedicated employee to attend to both their IT and telecommunications needs.

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